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Liberate Rolls
(1260-1267)These chancery liberate rolls of the 45th to 51st years of the reign of Henry III of England record the details of payments and allowances as part of the administration of government. Most entries start with the Latin words 'liberate', meaning 'deliver', or 'allocate', meaning allow. There are also 'contrabreves', warrants mainly to sheriffs of shires, assigning them tasks and allowing expenses. Most of the entries relate to England and Wales, but there are occasional references to Ireland and the English possessions in France.

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Cheshire Court Rolls
(1259-1290)Civil and criminal cases for most of Cheshire were handled by the county courts. Here we have the county court rolls for November 1259 to August 1260, December 1281 to September 1282, and December 1286 to September 1289. The city of Chester exercised its own jurisdiction, and here we have crown pleas and presentments from 1287 to 1297. The royal manor of Macclesfield in the east of the county had three independent jurisdictions - the hundred, forest and borough. Royal justices in eyre dealt with civil and criminal cases from the hundred and forest during their yearly visits, and here we have records from 1284 to 1290. Also covered by this index is an Inquest of Service in Time of War in Wales of 1288, listing knight's fees in the county.

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Pontefract Cartulary
(1100-1300)The Cluniac monastery of St John the Evangelist at Pontefract (Pomfret) in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was founded in the 11th century by Robert de Lascy. The grants of land made to the priory from then well into the 13th century were copied into a cartulary or chartulary which eventually came to Godfrey Wentworth of Woolley Park. This was edited by Richard Holmes and published by Yorkshire Archaeological Society in 1899 and 1902. The individuals named are mainly local landowners and tenants, canons, servants and wellwishers of the monastery. The charters before 1250 are often undated: the numbering of the charters is modern, and amounts to 561. The cartulary itself contains 11 fasciculi, to which Holmes gave these section names - I. The Seigniorial Charters; II. The Ecclesiastical Charters; III. Royal Charters and Confirmations; IV. The Local Charters (Pontefract &c.); V. The Ledstone Charters; VI. The Ledsham Charters; VII. Miscellaneous Charters; VIII. The Peckfield and other Charters; IX. and X. Scarborough and other Charters; and XI. Leases to Tenants. Ledston(e), Ledsham and Peckfield are all close to Pontefract, as is most of the property.

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Inhabitants of London
(1275-1312)Letter Book B of the City of London contains enrolments of recognizances between inhabitants, particularly citizens, for sums of money lent or due; grants of pieces of land or property; and various records relating to the city administration.

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Inhabitants of Cheshire and North Wales
(1310-1319)The county of Cheshire had palatine status, being in some measure independent of the rest of England: moreover, from the Statute of Wales of 1284, after king Edward's subjugation of North Wales, until the union of England and Wales in 1536 to 1543, much of the administration of North Wales (county Flint in particular) was directed from Chester. When the Chester Recognizance Rolls were moved from Chester to the Public Record Office, they were placed among the Welsh Records. These rolls, so called because they do include recognizances (of debts &c.) among their contents, are in fact the Chancery Rolls of the palatinate, containing enrolments of charters, letters patent, commissions and other documents issued under the seal of the palatinate. Deeds and other evidences of a private nature were also enrolled on them. A calendar of the Recognizance Rolls from their commencement to the end of the reign of Henry IV was prepared by Peter Turner and included in the 36th Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in 1875. We have now indexed this, dividing the enrolments into decades. This is the period from the 3rd to the 13th years of the reign of king Edward II.

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Grantees of offices, commissions and pardons
(1317-1321)The Patent Rolls are the Chancery enrolments of royal letters patent. Those for the 11th to the 14th years of the reign of king Edward II (8 July 1317 to 7 July 1321) were edited for the Public Record Office by G. F. Handcock, and published in 1903. The main contents are royal commissions and grants; ratifications of ecclesiastical estates; writs of aid to royal servants and purveyors; and pardons. Most extensive are the commissions of oyer and terminer to justices to investigate complaints about specific crimes and wrongs in particular counties.

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Chancery Warrants
(1244-1326)Warrants were issued by the kings of England to the royal chancery: most of these warrants led to further proceedings which are recorded on the Charter Rolls, Patent Rolls, Fine Rolls, Close Rolls or the Inquisitions: but archivists have identified a large number of warrants for which there are no such equivalent records, and those for the reigns of Edward I and Edward II are gathered here. Most of the entries relate to England and Wales, but with occasional items referring to Ireland and the English possessions in France.

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Staffordshire entries on the Assize, De Banco and Fine Rolls
(1307-1327)Extracts of Staffordshire entries from these three series of records for the reign of king Edward II were made by Major-General the Hon. G. Wrottesley, and published by the William Salt Society in 1888. The justices in eyre (itinerant) holding assizes not only tried all civil actions outstanding on their advent, pleas of the crown and common pleas, but also interrogated the juries of each hundred and borough as to the Articles of the Eyre, inquiring into the king's proprietary rights, escheats, wardships, and questions of maladministration. The court of King's Bench (de Banco) sat in Westminster, similarly dealing with court cases brought in from throughout the country. The fine rolls record part of the government administration in England, with orders sent out day by day to individual officers, and commitment of particular responsibilities and duties. Wrottesley's extracts are far from exhaustive, as he confined his attention to those landed gentry families that he considered of importance.

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Kent Charters
(1320-1329)A large accumulation of documents preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, formerly constituted the antiquarian collections of Anthony a Wood, Roger Dodsworth, Ralph Thoresby, Thomas Martin of Palgrave, Thomas Tanner bishop of St Asaph, Dr Richard Rawlinson, Richard Furney archdeacon of Surrey, and Richard Gough. A calendar of these was prepared by William H. Turner and published in 1878 under the title 'Calendar of Charters and Rolls preserved in the Bodleian Library'. The word 'charters' is here used in a very general sense, including virtually any manuscript or copy of a manuscript, but the bulk of the contents consists of mediaeval deeds of conveyance. Turner's calendar deals with each briefly, naming the principal parties and the nature of the deed, but hardly ever lists the witnesses. Many of these charters were undated (dating of deeds did not become standard until around 1350) or so damaged or defective ('mutilated' is Turner's usual description) as no longer to display a legible date. However, he contrived, from the style of the script and/or the nature of the contents, to estimate dates in such cases. The sample scan is from the start of the Bedfordshire list.

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Close Rolls
(1333-1337)The close rolls of the 7th to 10th years of the reign of king Edward III, that is from 25 January 1333 to 24 January 1337, record the main artery of government administration in England, the orders sent out day by day to individual officers, especially sheriffs of shires: they are an exceptionally rich source for so early a period. In amongst this official material, the rolls were also used as a way of recording many acknowledgments of private debts and contracts between individuals. Most of the contents relate to England, but there are also entries concerning Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the English possessions in France: particularly Scotland, where the king was campaigning during this period. This calendar was prepared by A. B. Hinds of the Public Record Office and published in 1898.